unable to show file error message on the view page

Question

i am trying to show image upload error message using flashdata but the code which i shown below is not working fine. What could be the reason?

Please suggest me a solution to solve this issue.

mycontrollerPage.php

class Booksetups extends CI_Controller  
{
    function book($book_id = 0)
    {
       $config = array(); 
       $config['base_url'] = 'http://localhost/thexxr.com/Booksetups/book/pgn/';
       $config["total_rows"] = $this->Booksmodel->record_count(); 
       $config['uri_segment'] = 4; 
       $config['per_page'] = 5;  
       $config['full_tag_open'] = '<div id="pagination">';
       $config['full_tag_close'] = '</div>';

        //------------not wroking file upload error validation------------------------------------------   
        $config['upload_path'] = 'uploads/'; 
        $config['allowed_types'] = 'gif|jpg|jpeg|png'; 
        $config['max_size'] = '1000'; 
        $config['max_width'] = '1920'; 
        $config['max_height'] = '1280'; 
        $config['remove_spaces'] = 'TRUE'; 
        $config['file_path'] = 'TRUE'; 
        $config['full_path']    = '/uploads/';

        $this->load->library('upload', $config);
        $this->upload->do_upload("img1");
        $this->upload->do_upload("img2");
        //------------------------------------------------------------------------


       $this->pagination->initialize($config);   
       $page = ($this->uri->segment(4)) ? $this->uri->segment(4) : 0;   

       $this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<div  class="error">', '</div>')->set_rules('subject_id', 'subject_id','trim|required|min_length[1]|max_length[150]|xss_clean');
       $this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<div  class="error">', '</div>')->set_rules('cover_id', 'cover_id','trim|required|min_length[1]|max_length[150]|xss_clean');
       $this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<div  class="error">', '</div>')->set_rules('language_id', 'language_id','trim|required|min_length[1]|max_length[150]|xss_clean');
       $this->form_validation->set_error_delimiters('<div  class="error">', '</div>')->set_rules('edition_id', 'edition_id','trim|required|min_length[1]|max_length[150]|xss_clean');

        if(($this->input->post('book_id'))&& ($this->form_validation->run() === TRUE))
        {  
            if( ! $this->upload->do_upload()) //trying to display error
            {
                   $error = array('error' => $this->upload->display_errors()); 
                   $this->session->set_flashdata('error', $error);
                   redirect(current_url()); 
            }
            $this->session->set_flashdata('msg', '1 row(s) affected.');
            $this->Booksmodel->entry_update();  
            redirect(current_url());
        }
    }
}       

Myview.php

<?php echo '<fieldset><legend>'. $formtopic.'</legend>' ?>  

<?php echo validation_errors();  ?>   
<?php 
    $message = $this->session->flashdata('msg');  
    if($message)
    {
    ?>
    <div class="success" id="msgdiv"><?php echo  $this->session->flashdata('msg'); ?></div> 
    <?php 
    }
?>  

<?php 
$message = $this->session->flashdata('error');  
    if($message)
    {
    ?> 
    <?php echo $error;?>   
    <!-- Here i am getting. Message like "array" why not i am getting the error message instead? --> 
<?php 
    }
?> 

Answer 1

I will recommend using form_validation's validation_errors(). Here is how i do it.
Take a look at the library in this answer.
This library has two methods validate_upload (it only checks if file is valid)
and do_upload(must be used only when validate_upload returns true).

There is a file upload library available in Codeigniter Here is the documentation. Copy the code of my answer and paste it in a file called MY_Upload.php and save this file in application/Code folder. And now i define a rule like this

$this->form_validation->set_rules('userfile', 'New Image', 'trim|callback_valid_upload');   

When the image upload is optional you can wrap it in a condition

if(isset($_FILES['userfile']) AND $_FILES['userfile']['name']!= ''){
    $this->form_validation->set_rules('userfile', 'New Image', 'trim|callback_valid_upload');   
}   

Where userfile is file field of form. You can see i have called a function in rule callback_valid_upload
Here is method of controller used in callback

public function valid_upload()
{
    $this->load->library('upload'); 

    $config['upload_path']      =   'your path here';           
    $config['allowed_types']    =   'png';
    $config['max_size']         =   2048;
    $config['max_width']        =   85;
    $config['max_height']       =   110;

    $this->upload->initialize($config);

    if (!$this->upload->validate_upload('userfile'))
    {
        $this->form_validation->set_message('valid_upload', $this->upload->display_errors());
        return FALSE;
    }else{
        return TRUE;
    }       
}

This method will check if file we are uploading is valid and will return true on success else false.
When validation is failed load form

View

echo validation_errors();
//blah blah
//<form action="">
//  <input type="" />
//  <input type="" />
//  <input type="" />
//</form>

And if you want to display the messages seperatly

<input type="file" name="userfile" id="" /> 
<?php echo form_error('userfile')?>

And if validation is successfull upload file now like this.

if($this->form_validation->run())
{
    if(isset($_FILES['userfile']) AND $_FILES['userfile']['name'] !='')
    {
        $this->upload->do_upload('userfile'); // this will upload file
        $image_data =   $this->upload->data();
        $data['image_field_name_of_table']      =   $image_data['raw_name'];
    }
    //other data in $data array here

    $id =   $this->mymodel->insert($data);
    if($id){
        $this->session->set_flashdata('notice', ' Successful');
        redirect('your url');   
    }
}else{
    //load view here
}    

MORE EDITS :
One thing i noticed in your code is a problem

   $config = array(); 
   $config['base_url'] = 'http://localhost/thexxr.com/Booksetups/book/pgn/';
   $config["total_rows"] = $this->Booksmodel->record_count(); 
   $config['uri_segment'] = 4; 
   $config['per_page'] = 5;  
   $config['full_tag_open'] = '<div id="pagination">';
   $config['full_tag_close'] = '</div>';

    $this->load->library('upload', $config);
    $this->upload->do_upload("img1");

    unset($config);

    $config['upload_path'] = 'uploads/'; 
    $config['allowed_types'] = 'gif|jpg|jpeg|png'; 
    $config['max_size'] = '1000'; 
    $config['max_width'] = '1920'; 
    $config['max_height'] = '1280'; 
    $config['remove_spaces'] = 'TRUE'; 
    $config['file_path'] = 'TRUE'; 
    $config['full_path']    = '/uploads/';

    $this->load->library('upload', $config); //load again with new configuration
    $this->upload->do_upload("img1");
    $this->upload->do_upload("img2");   

Answer 2

Here are some of my helper functions to set and show errors in CI

if (!function_exists('set_flash_message'))
{
    function set_flash_message($title, $message, $type='success')
    {
        $CI =& get_instance();
        $CI->session->set_flashdata(
            'flash_message',
            array(
                'type' => $type,
                'title' => $title,
                'text' => $message));
    }
}

if (!function_exists('flash_message'))
{
    function flash_message()
    {
        $CI =& get_instance();
        $message = $CI->session->flashdata('flash_message');
        return $CI->load->view('desktop/flash_message', $message, TRUE);
    }
}

You can set message from controller :

set_flash_message('Error', 'Something went wrong', 'error');

and show error from view

<?php echo flash_message(); ?>

Answer 3

As I have said in my comment;

you are getting array because you are setting the flash error message as an array [$error = array('error' => $this->upload->display_errors());], try setting it to just a string

If you look at the function in the source code, it either takes a hash array OR a string.
If an array is passed then it will set the flashdata with the key as the flash message type, message with the value; ignoring the second parameter.
If you pass two arguments as strings it will set the flashdata key with the first string.

So either do;

$this->session->set_flashdata('error', 'something went wrong');

Or

$this->session->set_flashdata(array('error', 'something went wrong'));

Code from the source:

function set_flashdata($newdata = array(), $newval = '')
    {
        if (is_string($newdata))
        {
            $newdata = array($newdata => $newval);
        }

        if (count($newdata) > 0)
        {
            foreach ($newdata as $key => $val)
            {
                $flashdata_key = $this->flashdata_key.':new:'.$key;
                $this->set_userdata($flashdata_key, $val);
            }
        }
    }